


you could stay with me forever

by thespiritofcuriosity



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/M, Fluff, ft. the world's briefest mention of blackinnon, jily, pure fluff, this author does not like severus snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-08 21:47:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12262716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thespiritofcuriosity/pseuds/thespiritofcuriosity
Summary: One-shot. Lily Evans fascinates James Potter. She hates him. Somewhere along the way they fall in love.(Otherwise known as, it's Jily month and I'm feeling inspired.)





	you could stay with me forever

Lily Evans hated James Potter.

Sure, he was a great friend to his mates and he would do anything for them, but he teased Severus and pulled pranks and was always willing to go up against her in an argument. He was more intelligent than most people she knew but seemed more intent on using his brain to cause trouble than to actually do something with himself.

He was at the top of the class in all of their courses despite the fact that she’d never seen him open a book, and he devoted all of his energy to the football team rather than worrying about GCSEs like everyone else in their year. He didn’t seem to have made any decisions regarding what he wanted to do for A levels or uni, and to make matters worse, he wasn’t especially fazed by his lack of a plan either.

James Potter was fascinated by Lily Evans.

She drove him mad, of course, with her insistence on arguing with him about everything and her strange need to defend the greasy git known as Severus Snape, but he was fascinated by her. She was funny and brilliant and as much as it annoyed him when she called him out, he couldn’t help but respect her for it too.

She was kind to Remus and Peter and she gave it to Sirius as good as she got, even where other people would have been dumbfounded. She was best friends with Marlene McKinnon and Alice Fortescue and she would have beaten up Mulciber for harassing Mary McDonald if Marlene hadn’t gotten to him first. James had seen Lily’s right hook once when a boy got a little too handsy and refused to take no for an answer and he knew he never wanted to be on the receiving end of it.

* * *

 

Lily Evans didn’t hate James Potter.

He had an overinflated ego, but he also helped out with the football teams for the under-tens and all of the kids loved him. She’d seen them dogpile him during practice and in the hallway and on more than one occasion she’d seen him comforting a crying child, whether it was because they’d been kicked in the shin or someone had said something to them that wasn’t so nice. He looked out for the kids in the lower school too and helped some of them with their footwork on the pitch when he didn’t have practice after classes.

He still hated Sev—Snape, but he wasn’t actively going out of his way to have altercations with the shorter boy. He hadn’t stop pulling pranks, but they’d become tamer in recent months and even she had to admit that taking apart all of the furniture from the student lounge and reassembling it on the roof was hilarious. She didn’t know the details but she knew that Sirius wasn’t going home with his younger brother any longer and instead showed up to school with James every morning. She had thought about asking James about it more than once, but she knew he wouldn’t give her an answer. He didn’t talk about his mates without their consent.

James Potter liked Lily Evans.

She was beautiful and clever and the level of sarcasm that she used in her day-to-day existence made him laugh more than it probably should. She was always looking at him like he was annoying her, but every once in a while he’d catch her staring at him with something akin to curiosity on her face instead and as long as that kept happening, he wasn’t going to worry too much about it.

Yeah, she hadn’t punched Snape in the face like he’d hoped she would after the little weasel called her a word that no one should ever use, but the wanker was absolutely destroyed by her refusal to talk to him afterward, so in a lot of ways it was even better. James knew it was probably immature to enjoy how much the git had been moping around ever since, but after all he’d done to the younger kids with the help of his friends, James was hard-pressed to feel even the slightest shred of sympathy.

* * *

 

Lily Evans liked James Potter.

He was funnier than she realized, always cracking jokes or making her smile with his acerbic wit that was only rivaled by her own. He always brought tea back for her when he and the boys would pop off to the shop down the road during lunch, and he never had to ask how she took it (milk and one sugar, thank you). He could debate with her about _The Lord of the Rings_ for hours, and his ability to quote Shakespeare at the drop of a hat made her question how she’d ever thought he didn’t read.

He told her that he wanted to be a lawyer, something that surprised her given that everyone thought he would try to make it in as a footballer after they finished their A levels. He didn’t want to do it for the money, though—he’d had enough of the negative attitudes towards immigrants and refugees and he wanted to go to court to fight for them. She couldn’t find it in herself to be surprised by that.

James Potter loved Lily Evans.

She smiled at him in the corridor and sat across from him at the table in the library when they studied with their friends. She was an ace at chemistry and helped him with it in exchange for his review of her literature essays. Sometimes he would say things that would make her laugh, really laugh, and he couldn’t get enough of the way that her eyes would sparkle when he would catch her with a particularly good joke.

She set Peter up with Dorcas Meadowes and helped James lock Sirius and Marlene in a closet one afternoon, just to make the point that they’d be better off snogging over arguing all the time. She helped out with the football team—well, mainly him and Sirius—making sure that they had all the bits of their kit in the morning, and she brought extra waters to their away matches because James never remembered to bring enough of his own.

* * *

 

Lily Evans loved James Potter.

He opened doors for her and pulled her chair out every time they went out together, and even though she thought chivalry was stupid and politeness was really all that mattered, she couldn’t help but appreciate how careful he was with her. He never gave her his coat when she was cold, but he wrapped his arms around her and held her against him and somehow that was even better.

He quizzed her on biology and chemistry when they sat on her couch, turning the pages of her textbooks with one hand while he held her hand with the other. After she missed a lunch date due to a cold, he showed up to hers that evening with a thermos full of soup, cold medicine, and the 2005 version of _Pride and Prejudice_. She fell asleep on his couch on more than one occasion and always woke up tucked under the blankets of his bed with a glass of water sitting on the nightstand.

James Potter was in love with Lily Evans.

He hadn’t expected to wind up at the same university as she did, and he definitely didn’t expect that she would say yes when he asked her out during their second week. She laughed at him when he spilled his coffee all over himself on their date, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be mad at her after she stood on her toes and kissed him in the doorway of his student accommodations.

He took every opportunity he could get to hold her hand and kiss her hair and just _be_ with her. Being with her was as easy as breathing for him, something that had been carved out over all those years together in primary and secondary school, and being _with_ her was an extension of that, not something new. He knew that other girls looked at him and tried to get his number from Sirius, but he never sent a glance their way.

He was too focused on Lily and the way she laced her fingers through his when they walked together, the image of her hair spread out on his pillow, how it felt to wake up next to her and make her breakfast, her sleepy smile and soft eyes and the way that she kissed him good morning.

* * *

 

Lily Evans was in love with James Potter.

He laughed at her when she tripped over nothing and argued with her over the silliest things. He told her that he wanted to name his first child Elvendork because “Evans, it’s unisex!” He forgot to bring a pencil with him at least once a week and never gave back the ones she lent him.

Her drawers were a mix of his clothes and hers as jumpers and t-shirts made their way from his closet to her room. He surprised her on her birthday with a vintage, leather-bound set of _The Lord of the Rings_ and proceeded to marathon all three extended editions with her that weekend.

His hands shook when he proposed to her at her graduation from medical school. She didn’t have anything else to say but “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am Jily trash and I'm not even sorry about it. They're alive and well somewhere and you can't convince me otherwise.


End file.
